Wages are rising, but so is productivity
'Consumer debt in relation to income remains low. Interest rates remain low and the Fed has now ceased its series of rate hikes. We anticipate GDP growth of 2.7%...
International
Trade Tantrum
'Thus, the rather impressive widening of the trade gap last year subtracted a mere 0.2% from GDP growth. It is hard to conclude that the wider trade gap had...
Ireland to auto-enroll workers into retirement plans
Ireland's plan also calls for auto-escalation. By 2028, the total contribution for each member would be 12% of salary a year. The government will add 2%, for a total...
A Mixed Economic Bag in 2019
Seven factors will shape the global economy this year, writes our guest columnist, a professor at New York University.
In Austria, earlier retirement was associated with earlier death
An additional year in early retirement increased a man’s probability of death before age 73 by 1.85 percentage points and reduced the age at death by an average of...
Numbernomics’ Forecast for 2019
'The stock market will climb to a record high level during 2019. But for this to happen, investment spending must continue to grow rapidly, and productivity must sustain a...
Britain’s DB plans roiled by gender equalization
The DB schemes of the UK’s 350 biggest listed companies showed a combined estimated deficit of £36bn (€41bn) on October 31, down from a £3bn aggregate surplus on September...
Trump’s Policies Will Displace the Dollar
Donald Trump’s 'profligate fiscal policies and reckless trade and sanctions policies will undermine America’s economy and the role of the dollar in global finance,' writes our guest columnist, an...
Investors keeping selling US equity funds
TrimTabs says U.S. equity funds lost a net $63.3 billion in 1Q2018, the second-highest quarterly outflow on record, while global equity funds received a net $63.9 billion. ...
Poland unveils retirement system overhaul
Poland is preparing to use auto-enrollment to move workers into a new kind of employer-based defined contribution plan, with mandatory employer and employee contributions. The 20-year-old system of diverting...
Spain Looks for New Ways to Save
Spain plans to reduce the fiscal burden of its national pension by dropping cost-of-living increases. Retirees will need to offset the loss of purchasing power with other savings. But...
Spain’s Pension Outlook: Sunny with a Chance of Austerity
To study the Spanish retirement system, RIJ has temporarily relocated to Seville. We start with a look at the public pension system (a contributory, pay-as-you-go system like Social Security...
Britain wants to bump up retirement savings rates
Since 2012, when auto-enrollment was launched in Britain, workplace pension participation in the public and private sectors has increased to 78% in 2016 from a low of 55% in...
DB-DC hybrid idea resurfaces in UK; launches in Germany on January 1
The British government is looking anew at a hybrid defined contribution plan design that would give participants a non-guaranteed variable income (with or without smoothing) in retirement.
Allianz, Aegon et al Inject New ‘Variable’ into Dutch DC Biz
In the Netherlands, American-style drawdowns of variable payments from defined contribution plans is a novel idea.
Political turmoil sidelines UK pension reform
'If you’re under 40 your income has been eroding and your ability to grow wealth assets is almost non-existent,' said one official. 'The parties’ promises need to catch up...
How Ticos Turn DC Savings to Income
Retirees can take a monthly income equal to 1/12 of the earnings on their DC savings, or they can take a “scheduled withdrawal” where their accumulation is divided by...
Más o Menos: Ticos Cheerfully Eke By
With 4.8 million people, Costa Rica’s problems are comparable to those of a big U.S. city, like Los Angeles or Chicago. Yet the tensions of a large U.S. city...
Dream-House Shopping in Costa Rica
The house was for sale. Its mystical vibe seduced them into paying $150,000 in cash. Monkeys, sloths, macaws, butterflies and gekkos would be their neighbors as the couple aged....
Skin in the (Costa Rican Retirement) Game
How do Costa Ricans pay for retirement? In San Jose, Alvaro Ramos Chaves (above), the pensions regulator, told RIJ how his nation’s mandatory DB and DC plans work. His...
